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Flotex Sottsass sheet

Ground breaking both aesthetically and technically. Flotex Sottsass flocked flooring is the result of a creative collaboration between Forbo Flooring and the Italian design studio Sottsass Associati which is responsible for the famous Memphis Design trend at the end of the last century. The Sottsass designs present unique organic forms and irregular, apparently random patterns.

Flotex Bacteria

Taking inspiration from Sottsass's "Bacterio" sketch from the 1970's, this unique Flotex design is open to wide interpretation. Close up it can be perceived as random carnival confetti, from afar it appears as a constellation of distant stars.

Flotex Kasuri

Flotex Sottsass Kazuri draws its inspiration from the traditional Japanese woven textile technique used to create the eponymous fabric. Christopher Redfern uses the digital pixel in the fusion of contemporary and traditional references inherent in this design.

Flotex Terrazzo

Flotex Sottsass Terrazzo is a witty “twist” on the concept of traditional Italian Terrazzo (a poured concrete flooring containing chips of stone, marble or glass with distinctive and irregular pattern when dry and polished). On closer inspection, the “chips” in the design are revealed as pieces of torn paper – each holds its own story – a shredded love letter or only a bill? – it is for the individual to decide and to create his own narrative.

Flotex Wool

Conceived by Ettore Sottsass by laying filaments of varied wool yarns collected from different countries onto a flat coloured surface, Sottsass Wool plays on the texture of the individual strands of natural fibres, giving a sense of depth and warmth to the floor. The defined linear pattern offers widely different perspectives used in a variety of interior dimensions.

Ground breaking designs

The Flotex Sottsass collection is created by Ettore Sottsass and Christopher Redfern of the Italian design studio Sottsass Associati and forms a radical direction in combining dynamic design with pioneering and innovative product technology.

The collection compromises 4 designs: Terrazzo, Wool, Bacteria and Kasuri. The designs feature irregular, apparently random and organic forms, and the “optical” feature to play with scale, an aspect which is especially relevant to flooring, where the dynamics of perspective are constantly at work.

Flotex Sottsass is available in a wide range of colourways and include hot fashion colours in strongly contrasting combinations like Schiapparelli pink, electric blue and neon green on a black background.

Creative collaboration

A radical direction in combining dynamic design with pioneering and innovative product technology, that is the Sottsass Collection. A directional collection in Flotex flocked flooring, ground-breaking both aesthetically and technically.

Flotex Sottsass is the result of a creative collaboration between Forbo Flooring and the Italian design studio Sottsass Associati. The late Ettore Sottsass and his partner and head of studio Christopher Redfern have together created the 4 designs that compromise this Flotex collection. It is manufactured using specially developed digital print technologies which have set a new bench mark for rendering high quality images onto textile.

A unique floor covering like Flotex offers an opportunity for creative designers as within Sottsass Associati. Thanks to the ease of printing, almost every design is possible. This gave Ettore Sottsass and Christopher Redfern the freedom to use their creativity and let art do the talking.

A sustainable floor

Green electricityForbo’s manufacturing operations for Flotex in Great Britain and France secure a high quality floor covering, produced with green electricity and minimum waste streams that are all recycled in the floor.

Water basedFlotex is created with nylon 6.6 fibres. All dies and inks that are used to create the Flotex designs are water based. No additional chemical processes take place other than high temperature steam treatment to secure the colours.

Recycled contentFlotex makes use of waste streams of other Forbo production locations to be transformed into the backing of the floor coverings. Recycled content in Flotex is up to 67% of the backing content.

Extremely durableA big advantage for using Flotex is the extreme performance of the floor covering, with a product life time that surpasses that of ordinary textiles by a factor 6.

Simple cleaning & maintenanceFlotex can be cleaned by using water and a simple detergent. For most staining, simple household soap is enough to clean the product, while other detergent clean away ink, oil and more severe stains. After use Flotex can be recycled back into the production process.

Technical Information

Flotex Installation & floorcare

The unique construction of Flotex allows to release soling like no other textile flooring. The smooth straight fibres of Flotex do not trap particles of soil, allowing them to be removed without difficulty during cleaning.